Deezer adopts freemium music-streaming model, ad-supported but free for a year

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French music-streaming service Deezer has taken the clock back a few years by rejigging its offering to be ad-supported and, therefore, free. What's more the ad-funded version of the service will be unlimited, allowing you to stream as many music tracks as you like at no cost.

Launching in 150 countries from today, including the UK, you can sign up and get one-year's unlimited ad-supported Deezer. If you want to remove the adverts, you can then upgrade to a Premium+ account at £9.99 a month, which will allow you access to the same music tracks at a higher audio quality, mobile and tablet access and the ability to download songs for offline playback.

A Premium account is also available, for £4.99 a month, but doesn't include mobile or tablet access or offline listening.

After the 12-month trial period, a user must either subscribe or accept just two hours of free audio playback per month.

"Deezer has a proven track record of profitability and sustainability. Now we’re embarking upon the next stage in our journey towards becoming known to households around the world," said Axel Dauchez, Deezer's CEO.

"Our ad-supported service is a necessary trigger to drive global change by bringing music subscription to mass audiences worldwide. Our aim here is to encourage music fans to try us, driving ad-supported service listeners to switch to paid subscription over time. Once they have properly experienced Deezer, people do not go back."

You can sign up at deezer.com, where there are also more details on the price plans and Premium subscriptions.